English Explanatory Dictionary

benevolent dictator for life

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The leader of an open-source software project, typically project founders, who retains the final say in disputes or arguments within the community.

Word forms

benevolent dictator for life benevolent dictators for life

Etymology

Originally applied to Dutch programmer Guido van Rossum, creator of the Python programming language, in an email from 1995. According to van Rossum, coined likely by either Ken Manheimer or Barry Warsaw.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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